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I’ve been “speed dating” with different dieting techniques in an attempt to find one that fits. I haven’t committed to any one method just yet. About two years ago when I first left Virginia and moved back home to FL I was at my heaviest weight ever. I managed to shed the extra pounds and promised myself I would never get “Virginia fat” again. In fact, after working last summer in the bakeshop at PB, I was the most svelte and in shape I’ve been in years.

Well, folks, I’ve been back in Virginia for almost 10 months now and I am ashamed to admit that I gained all of that terrible weight right back. I called the first few pounds my “winter coat” because it’s too easy to gain weight up here during the winter. It’s too cold to be outside and so you’re just not getting as much physical activity in as you would during the summer. But it’s about to be July now and I haven’t lost a single pound. If I flew to FL tomorrow you probably couldn’t get me to put on a bathing suit.

I’ve finally gathered enough resolve to do something about it. I AM going to get in shape. It’s the HOW part that I’m still ironing out. So far I have considered the following options:

1. Go (mostly) vegetarian. I tried this and was successful for about a week or two. And then I sort of let it fall by the wayside without even realizing it. At some point I turned around and realized that I’d gone from mostly vegetarian to more like “one meal a week” vegetarian.

2. Go vegan. I started looking into this in the midst of my vegetarian kick. Needless to say, if I couldn’t hack it as a vegetarian there’s no way I’d be able to comply with the strict demands of a vegan diet. I’d probably be wonderfully skinny in no time at all but I just don’t think this is the right dietary outlet for me.

3. The Paleo diet. This sounds like a great idea but I’d have to do some more research first. Not crossing this off the list yet. I’d just have to get the beau on board.

4. Calorie counting. In the last two days I’ve tried out two different calorie counting websites. One was on WebMD and the other was on MyFitnessPal. Pros: They both factor your age, weight, height, activity level, and desired weight goal into account to calculate how many calories you should be consuming a day if you want to lose weight. And I love that they give me a much clearer picture of how the things I am eating on a daily basis are either helping or sabotaging my weight loss goal. They also tell you how many calories you should be burning each day if you want to lose weight. Cons: When it came to logging entries into my food diary, the WebMD database of foods was really lacking. However, MyFitnessPal had an AWESOME database of foods. And it was very specific. Yesterday I had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and MyFitnessPal had not only the entree that I had eaten for me to select but also the exact Cheesecake factory bread that I ate. So that saves a lot of headache having to research the nutritional information on my own and then manually key it all in.

5. The HCG diet. This is how I lost my “Virginia fat” the first time around. Besides the lofty price tag (around $425), this diet was a huge success. If you Google it, you’ll get mixed opinions on whether it’s healthy or not but I only had to do it for 30 days and I lost every single pound that I wanted to shed. No exercise involved. It’s a strict, low-calorie diet in which you take the HCG hormone (via self injection or sub-lingual oral drops – your choice) and can lose between 1/2 lb. – 1 l/b. a day (depending on how heavy you are when you start the diet). I know plenty of other people who have shelled out monies for this diet and had great success. It was not “too good to be true” or just a “quick fix”. The weight stayed off. I have HEAVILY reconsidered doing this diet again. However, it is expensive and although it will definitely help me lose the weight it will not help me get in shape.

And last, but not least, my most recent endeavor:

6. Jackie Warner’s magic books. I don’t know how many of you used to watch “Work Out” on Bravo TV but Jackie Warner is my fitness idol. I think she is uh-may-zing. There was a Yahoo! article published today about a new book she just released called “10 Pounds in 10 Days” and there’s even a little promotional video clip where she explains the concept and demonstrates a few exercises.

I know you may be skeptical about such an outlandish promise… and maybe I’m just begin naive here… but if she insists it can be done then I believe her. If there’s anything I learned from watching 3 seasons of Work Out, it’s that Jackie produces results.

So I checked out her website to look into purchasing the book. I was really hoping to be able to just purchase it for my Nook but it’s not available yet. Wahhh. However, apparently she has a first book out called “This Is Why You’re Fat (And How to Get Thin Forever: Eat More, Cheat More, Lose More – And How to Keep the Weight Off” and it IS available on the Nook. “I’m gettin’ that fa SHO.” (obscure Superbad reference)

I’m excited to see what she has to say and looking forward to how much I can potentially accomplish in the 7 weeks before I fly home for a visit! My biggest hinderance so far is that I’ve been studying for the CPA exam which takes up most of the few precious hours that I have in the evenings after work. I have little to no time to go to a gym without sacrificing precious study time. I did take a jog during my lunch break today. My officemate and I are going to try jogging during our lunch hour because we both have scare time to do anything in the evening after work.

In the mean time, I’d love to hear any tips you have based on your own diet and exercise success!

the only secret to losing weight is burning more then you consume – i say whatever diet you try, also supplement it by hitting up the gym – daily :). It’s a pain in the ass, and takes motivation, but it works!

I have tried just about every diet. I put on a lot of weight after breaking my neck a few years back. Almost 50# to be more specific.

Nothing seemed to work….low calorie, nutisystem, the lemonade diet. (The last one is brutal!) I finally found one that really worked. I was able to put a bunch of muscle on and really lower my body fat. It obviously means a strict diet and should I say it – EXERCISE!

It wasn’t hard though. The exercise is an hour a day on the treadmill at the fat burn level. You also have to eat something every three hours to fire your system into burning fat, and keep it from burning muscle.

I’ll be happy to explain what the food plan was like if anyone wants to know.